Jack Welch's 4 E's of Leadership

Energy - Individuals with energy love to "go, go, go." These people possess boundless energy and get up every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world.

Energizers - know how to spark others to perform. They outline a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get people excited about a cause or a crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, but quick to accept responsibility when things go awry.

Edge - Those with edge are competitive types. They know how to make the really difficult decisions, such as hiring, firing and promoting, never allowing the degree of difficulty to stand in their way.

Execute - The key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other "E's" are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are not the same and are capable of converting energy and edge into action and results.

by Jeffrey A. Krames

The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

Lessons learned from The Art of the Start:

Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneur” is not a job title. It is the state of mind of people who want to alter the future.

The hardest thing about getting started is getting started.

You should always be selling – not strategizing about selling.

Key principles of getting going:

1. Think big.
2. Find a few soul mates.
3. Polarize people. When you create a product or service that some people love, don’t be surprised when others hate you. Your goal is to catalyze passion – pro or anti. Don’t be offended if people take issue with what you’ve done; the only result that should offend (and scare) you is lack of interest.
4. Design different.

Ferdinand Porsche said, “In the beginning I looked around and, not finding the automobile of my dreams, decided to build it myself."

Define your business model.

Tips to help you develop your business model:

1. Be specific. The more precisely you can describe your customer, the better. Most successful companies started off targeting specific markets and grew to great size by addressing other segments. Few started off with grandiose goals and achieved them.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Copy somebody. Try to relate your business model to one that’s already successful and understood. You have plenty of other battles to fight.

Niche thyself.

When selling ask yourself, did it catch attention, hold my interest, pierce my armor? Did I talk English and make a point?

Apply the opposite Test: Do you describe your offering in a way that is opposite to that of your competition? If you do, then you’re saying something different. If you don’t, then your descriptions are impotent.

How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching? His lips are moving.

Ship, fix. Ship, fix. Ship, fix, instead of fix, fix, fix, ship.

Recommendations for the art of execution:

1. Set and Communicate goals.

2. Measure progress.

3. Establish a single point of accountability. If it takes more than ten seconds to figure out who is responsible for achieving a goal, something is wrong. Good people accept accountability. Great people ask for it.

4. Reward the achievers.

5. Establish a culture of execution. Execution is not a one-time event. Nor is it a process where you check off goals as if your sixth-grade teacher were looking over your shoulder. Rather, execution is a culture that produces a set of organization wide habits.

Reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." – Ralph Nader

A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players. It doesn’t take long to get to Z players.

If there is one thing a CEO must do, it’s hire a management team that is better than he is.

It’s not enough that candidates are good and different; they must also believe that your organization can change the world. They must be infected with enthusiasm for what you do.

High achievers tend to have major weaknesses. People without major weaknesses tend to be mediocre.

The best brand never start with the intent of building a great brand. They focus on building a great- and profitable – product or service and an organization that can sustain it. – Scott Bedbury

The key elements of contagiousness:

1. Cool. Cool is beautiful. Cool is hip. Cool is idiosyncratic. And cool is contagious.

2. Effective. You can’t brand something that doesn’t work.
3. Distinctive. A contagious product is easy to notice and advertises itself. It leaves no doubt that it is different from the competition. Does anyone confuse a Hummer with other vehicles?

4. Disruptive. Contagious products are disruptive. They either upset the status quo or make them go into denial. But they do not leave people unaffected.

5. Emotive. A contagious product or service exceeds expectations, and by exceeding expectations, it makes you joyful.

6. Deep. A contagious product or service “has legs.” The more you use it, the more you discover it is capable of.

7. Indulgent. Purchasing a contagious product or service makes you feel as if you’ve indulged yourself. It enables you to escape the mundane. The tag line for Miele, for example, is “Anything else is a compromise.”

8. Supported.

An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It should do only one thing, otherwise, it confuses. If it is not simple, it won’t work. – Peter Drucker

Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with his strength. – Hasidic saying

I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. – Ludwig van Beethoven

Drive a stake in the heart of the status quo.

It’s alright to aim high if you have plenty of ammunition. – Hawley R. Everhart

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

The Friendship Factor by Alan Loy McGinnis

Here are some great lessons that I learned from The Friendship Factor

Assign top priority to your relationships

Cultivate transparency

• If we build more windows and fewer walls we will have more friends.

I must make an intentional decision to give my opinion on as little as possible.

• Giving your opinions on everything in the name of ‘honesty’ is a foolhardy way to live.
• Part of prudence as well as courtesy to keep our opinions to our self.

“Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in themselves”

Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

Learn the gestures of Love

Build great rituals into our family life.

One of the best ways to deepen a friendship is by eating together.

Accumulate good memories by helping a friend with a task.

The art of giving gifts

The ripple effect of kindness

Someone has said that the test of great men and woman is the way they treat little people.

Develop the habit of looking for gestures that build goodwill, kindliness, love and appreciation.

Create space in your relationships

My goal in every encounter and conversation must be to build people up.

• They must feel better about themselves when they are in my presence.

Be cautious with criticism

People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be not nag them to be.

God himself does not propose to judge a man until his life is over.

Employ the language of acceptance

Listen without judging.

• “Interesting, tell me more about it?”
• “I’d be interested to hear your point of view?”
• “This seems like something important to you”

Encourage people’s uniqueness.

Your loved ones will have unique projects and if you love them you will love their projects.

In all our relationships we move together and apart at various times, like a dance.

Children are not properties to own and rule over, but gifts to cherish and care for.

Children will increase whatever behavior gets them attention, even if it’s negative attention.

If you train your mind to search for the positive aspects in other people, you will be surprised at how many good things you can observe in them and comment upon.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

Schedule leisurely breaks for conversation.

The secret of being interesting is to be interested. When you ask questions that the other person will enjoy answering and you encourage people to talk about themselves An astonishing kind of connection usually occurs.

‘The road to the heart is the ear.’ Voltaire

Good listeners

1. Listen with their eyes.

2. Dispense advice sparingly.

• Don’t give people advice unless they ask for it.
• Sometimes you shouldn’t even give it when they ask for it.

3. Never break an confidence

4. Thank those who are open with them.

Tears are the noble language of the eye.

A personal relationship is not predicated on solutions to problems or answers to questions. Our top goal should be to understand each other, to get close to each other, experience each other.

Talk about your feelings and not your friend’s faults.

Stick to one topic.

Allow your friend to respond.

• If you are unhappy with someone you have the right to express it,
• But you also have the responsibility to stay and hear the other side.

A true apology is more than an acknowledgement of a mistake.

• It is recognition that something you have said or done has damaged a relationship and that you care enough about the relationship to want it repaired and restored.

Quotes

Criticism

Right now I am having so much trouble with D L Moody I don’t have time to find fault with the other fellow.

Listening

‘The road to the heart is the ear.’ Voltaire

Crying

Crying opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes and softens down the temper.

Tears are the noble language of the eye.

It's Your Ship

It's Your Ship by Micael Abrashoff is one of the best books - on getting people engaged and taking ownerships at work – that I have ever read. Michael Abrashoff is an absolute master at this.

He would constantly tell his crew, this is your ship and you are responsible for it. By helping them taking ownership of ‘their ship’ they went from being the worst to the best ship in the US Navy in about 2 years’ time.

He did so by…

1. Listening aggressively. (Every leader needs big ears.)
2. Opening himself up for criticism.
3. Being there for the crew.
4. Seeing the ship from their perspective.
5. Expressing to each crew member how important they are.
6. Helping people realize their full potential.
7. Motivating them too work with passion, enthusiasm and energy.
8. Making it rewarding for them to express themselves and their ideas.
9. Training them to think and make their own judgments.
10. Training each crew member to master their job.
11. Empowering them to fix the ship themselves.
12. Constantly asking the crew, ‘Is there a better way to do what you do?’
13. Making every encounter with every person on the ship the most important thing at that moment.
14. Looking for results and not salutes.
15. Communicating purpose and meaning.

What are some things that you have found to be helpful in helping people to be engaged and taking ownership on all fronts?

Six silence and violence behaviors to look for in yourself and others

1. Withdrawing
2. Avoiding
3. Masking
4. Controlling
5. Labeling
6. Attacking

Easy to see in others, not always to easy to see in ourselves. How do you do on these ones and in what way? I tend to be guilty of 4, 5 & 6.

Book Review: Death by Meeting - Patrick Lencioni

The book is written in the story of a fable and gives some great examples of how to bring energy, creativity, drama and effectiveness to your meetings.

Reading it was sobering and eye opening. I find meetings that I chair very beneficial because it is an easy way for me to gather information and get up to speed with everything happening around the organization, but what about those that attend the meetings? Are my meetings conducted in such a way as to engage everyone in it? Do I lead it in a way that people look forward to it?

According to Lencioni (and I am convinced of his case) meetings can be conducted in a dynamic, passionate and focused way that can bring about synergy, creativity and collaborative action plans. He also gives some great ideas as to how to set it into motion. It is certainly an easy and worthwhile read.

Crucibles of Leadership

‘What exactly is a crucible? In medieval times it was the vessel in which alchemists attempted to turn base metals into gold. In a leadership context, then, we can think of a crucible as a transformative experience from which a person extracts his or her "gold” – a new or altered sense of identity.’

** Quoted from "Crucibles Of Leadership”.

Personally I felt this book should have been an article and not a book, but it certainly had a few great points worth sharing:

We need to learn from all our crucible leadership experiences.

What do I learn about myself, my way of leading, my character, my strengths and my weaknesses?

While experience matters, what matters more is what we make of experience.

The ability to find meaning and strength in adversity distinguishes leaders from non-leaders. When terrible things happen, the less able people feel singled out, powerless, and even victimised. But leaders find purpose and resolve.

It is the leader's job to reshape and reframe tension, finding an angle or a lens through which the current reality can be reshaped into a healthier and more productive outcome.

Practice can Trump talent.

Although some form of talent is required in order to lead, it is practice that ultimately wins the day. We cannot just shoot from the hip - we have to practice to lead well. And we have to be very intentional about this. Too often we depend on natural talent only instead of developing the talent we have been given.

Talent plays a role, undoubtedly, but it is a supporting role. No amount of native talent can prepare a leader for the infinite variety of circumstances he will face or the challenges he must surmount. No gene for resilience ensures that gems of wisdom will suddenly appear at the turmoil of a crucible.

Talent is rarely enough to explain who becomes an imminent performer. Chess masters, for instance, differ from beginners not because they are blessed with superior memory or because of the way their brains are wired, but because they have what researchers described as "a rich store of familiar moves”. In other words, they have played more matches and therefore have literally seen more patterns and the strategies associated with them.

Both helplessness and resilience can be learned.

Some great quotes:

"Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom."

~ General George S Patton.

"The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."

~ Muhammad Ali

“The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way."

~ Mark Twain